When U.S. Rep. John B. Larson addressed the MetroHartford Alliance this month, he told the business group that his "most important accomplishment" has been "knowing we've secured the manufacturing and industrial base for Connecticut."

That might be difficult to see in this western corner of the 1st Congressional District, where manufacturing has been slow to recover from heavy losses over the last 14 years the 64-year-old Larson has been in office. All of Hartford is in the 1st Congressional, as are 26 other towns, including Winsted, Barkhamsted, Colebrook, Hartland, New Hartford and 15,000 of Torrington's 36,000 residents.

When Larson talks about his role in the state's industrial and manufacturing economy, he's referring to the $194 million contract he helped secure for Pratt & Whitney to manufacture joint strike fighter engines for the U.S. Navy. And he's referring to the U.S. Air Force airlift tanker engine Pratt & Whitney, with plants in Middletown and Larson's hometown of East Hartford, is producing.

Even though those contracts, touted earlier this year during press events where Larson appeared, benefit Hartford-area companies, Larson contends it benefits the western part of his district because "it stabilizes our whole supply network."

"You have to start with the foundation and the largest manufacturer," which is Pratt & Whitney, Larson said. He added that he's visited Fuel Cell in Torrington and Alcoa Howmet's manufacturing facility in Winsted and said his support for the Buy America Caucus would help support manufacturing statewide, as would a program he's supported called "Manufacturing Match."

"We worked together with small manufacturers, the Chamber of Commerce (in Hartford), the Department of Labor, and ... we connected 50 people with jobs," Larson said. The program seeks to pair people with the right skills with the right manufacturers. He said he's spoken with JoAnn Ryan, Northwest Connecticut Chamber of Commerce president, to bring the program to the western part of his district.

Larson's neophyte opponent, Republican John Henry Decker of West Hartford, has accused Larson of partisanship, especially because Larson is chairman of the House Democratic Caucus. Larson bristles at the charge.

"He makes a claim that is essentially false," Larson said, pointing to bills on autism and natural gas he's worked on with Republicans. "I will criticize Republicans when they're wrong on the issue, but I'll also work with them on a common goal. It's kind of a naive assumption when we've said we've had over 87 bills that we've worked on there. Does that sound like partisanship?"

Yet mention issues like the jobs bill President Obama tried unsuccessfully to pass this year, and the gloves come off.

"I work with Republicans, but when they won't even take up the jobs bill, should I be silent on that?" Larson said. "We're the minority. We've put forward solutions. You have all these economists out there saying there has to be a balance (of revenue and spending), but they take a pledge of allegiance to (anti-tax advocate) Grover Norquist. They're supposed to take a pledge of allegiance to this country."

Decker has also accused Larson of hypocrisy of advocating campaign finance reform while accepting money from political action committees. During this campaign cycle, Larson has accepted $1,072,095 from committees compared with less than $800,000 from individuals. Larson's war chest dwarfs his opponent's by over $1.7 million.

Asked why he would accept donations from committees when the individual contributions on their own would have exponentially outspent Decker, Larson said there is an expectation that as chairman of the Democratic Caucus, he funnels money to other candidates.

"You can't unilaterally disarm when you're in the midst of a nuclear war with the other side," Larson said. "But that doesn't mean you can't work for an alternative to make sure that as we're going down this road that we come up with a system that's sensible."

Even with a fundraising and demographic edge, Larson said, "We never take any race for granted and I don't take the office for granted."

"I'm the happy warrior when it comes to campaigning," Larson said.

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